Review: DocuSign vs HelloSign vs SignHouse

DocuSign comes in at the highest price point of the three with enterprise-level tools, HelloSign (Dropbox Sign) offers middle-of-the-road functionality for small businesses and entrepreneurs, and SignHouse wins the crown for most free resources. 

Looking for an eSignature software? Knowing the benefits of different e-signature software makes it easy to choose the one that fits your specific needs.

Whether you have a large team or a small one, in real estate, sales, or another industry, you need a way to effectively coordinate everyone’s e-signatures. 

Let’s look at three different e-signature services – DocuSign, HelloSign, and SignHouse. Each has benefits for different functionalities and team sizes.

Comparison: DocuSign, HelloSign, SignHouse

Document Analytics

Document analytics are the sorts of things you want to know about your document in the signing process.

How many people have viewed your file so far? How many have signed? Having this information readily available makes it easy to keep the signing process moving, and send helpful reminders to parties who haven’t signed yet. 

DocuSign and HelloSign do not currently offer this service. SignHouse offers simple document analytics that won’t confuse you or give you a headache. 

Integration

When choosing an online signature generator, you have to choose one that can integrate with other tools your team uses. 

DocuSign integrates with Google Drive, Microsoft Office, and Dropbox, with more integrations like Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics available in their Enterprise package. They offer more than 350 integrations in total, making them a good choice for enterprise-level operations.

HelloSign also integrates with Google Drive, Microsoft Office, and Dropbox, with Salesforce integration available if you upgrade from Essential to their Standard package. They don’t list an exact number of integrations, but work with Zapier to provide custom connections to the software you need. 

SignHouse offers integrations with Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive, and Dropbox, as well as the ability to send documents to multiple recipients simultaneously. They also offer extensive free resources for adding signatures in multiple different formats, to ensure that even the least tech-savvy of their users can use each of their integrations. 

Pricing Offer

DocuSign offers a limited-use free version and four paid tiers of pricing for different users: Personal, Standard, Business, and Advanced. Each comes with increasing levels of functionality and additional features. 

HelloSign offers a limited free version for occasional users and three paid tiers for different sizes of teams and usage levels: Essentials, Standard, and Enterprise. They also offer a 30-day free trial of the paid versions.  

SignHouse is completely free for small users, and has one payment tier that offers unlimited users and signatures every month. 

What Is DocuSign?

DocuSign is an American e-signature software company. They have been providing US ESIGN and EU eIDAS-compliant e-signatures since 2003. With over 400 integrations, over 1 million customers, and over a billion users, they are one of the leading providers of e-signatures for companies worldwide. 

Key Features

Feature #1: e-Signature maker

DocuSign’s e-signature tool makes signing documents faster and more secure. Their software works across nearly all devices and can include your company’s custom branding.

You can create an electronic signature with a finger, stylus, or mouse, and then reuse that signature for the life of your DocuSign membership.

Feature #2: Electronic Notarization

When a signature isn’t enough, DocuSign’s remote electronic notary services allow you to keep moving forward. Having a remote notary service allows you to complete the signatures you need without losing any extra time in the closing process. 

DocuSign’s notary services come with all the identity verification of a physical notary public and includes a complete audit trail to ensure complete user confidence. 

As the world and the including the document management industry become increasingly digital, this will be the new future of official recognition and document verification.

E-notary services will make legal agreements and witnessed signings faster and easier than ever. 

Feature #3: Contract Lifecycle Management

DocuSign’s contract management tools allow you to streamline and organize your contract processes from contract creation to secure digital storage after the contract is finalized.

It includes contract customization from templates and workflow options to keep contracts moving through your organization. It also includes a searchable database with tools for obligation reminders, contract renewals, and more. 

Pricing

DocuSign’s "Personal" plan costs $10/month and covers one user and up to 5 contracts per month. It includes integrations with Google Drive, Microsoft 365, Dropbox, and reusable templates.

As you upgrade to a price package of $25, you’ll have access to new features and unlimited contracts.

You also have the business pro package, priced at $40 which gives you the ability to customize forms. 

DocuSign Pros & Cons

Pros: 

• Good security
• Easy to sign 
• Easy to see when documents have been signed

Cons: 

• Poor customer service
• Little functionality for single-use cases
• Expensive

What Is HelloSign?

HelloSign, now known as Dropbox Sign, is an e-signature software created and owned by document management company Dropbox.

Their notable customers include real estate management company Avail, AI pioneer Jasper, and shopping aid Instacart. 

Dropbox Sign allows its users to fill and sign PDFs, create templates, and more. 

Key Features

Feature #1: Signature Maker

Dropbox Sign features a signature maker tool to allow its users to make a secure, legal, reusable digital signature. This can be done with a finger, stylus, keyboard, or mouse. 

Alternatively, you can import a photographed or scanned signature from paper to the signature maker. This might be especially valuable to people who have a unique or detailed wet-ink signature that they don’t want to modify for online use. 

Feature #2: Templates

Dropbox Sign allows you to prepare custom templates for your most used documents, such as various tax forms, sales contracts, or NDAs. This allows you to save time by changing only a few words in your contract instead of re-creating entire documents.

Alternatively, you can choose from Dropbox Sign’s library of commonly-used contract templates.

Different payment tiers have different levels of access to the library, with higher levels gaining access to more different templates per month. 

Feature #3: Document Management System

DropboxSign’s document management system allows users to access previously signed documents, sync documents with cloud storage apps like Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive, and set access permissions for different users or signers. 

This feature allows users to save their previously-signed documents in a “library” for future reference. This could be for legal documents or accounting reference at the end of the year or if any disputes arise.

It could also be used for access to previously-created custom forms that you don’t want to have to make again, or contract renewals. 

Pricing 

Dropbox Sign offers three paid service tiers and an option to bundle Dropbox and Dropbox Sign in one subscription. 

The "Essential" plan costs $15/month and includes one user. This payment tier is suitable for single-person businesses or freelancer enterprises. It has more features for the price than DocuSign, but fewer than SignHouse’s paid package. 

The Dropbox + eSign bundle costs $24.99/month and includes all the features from the Essential plan, plus access to Dropbox cloud storage.

The "Standard" plan costs $25/user/month and includes all the features from the "Essential" plan, plus extra features for 2-4 person teams and business tools.

DropboxSign also includes a "Premium" plan that is designed for 5+ person teams. It includes more advanced features for custom template creation and signing fields.  

HelloSign Pros & Cons

Pros:

• Easy drag-and-drop templates
• Works well on mobile
• Reasonable cost

Cons: 

• Small template library
• Problems grouping forms for same user/signer
• Can have a slow load time 

SignHouse is the performant alternative

SignHouse is an e-signature software that, like DocuSign and HelloSign, allows you to create e-signatures, sign a contract online, and add signatures to PDFs. The big difference? SignHouse strives to make every user interaction even easier than the main brands.

SignHouse’s main focus is to make document manipulation intuitive so that even the least tech-savvy person can utilize every feature across the platform. 

Read further: We've got a guide dedicated to 10 HelloSign alternatives. Check out the post and see what suits your needs best.

Key Features

Feature #1: Add signature in PDF documents

Signhouse allows you to create, upload and sign your PDFs online under one helpful platform. You can edit a PDF easily,  without having to access third-party software.

And the best thing? It’s completely free on SignHouse. 

Feature #2: Add online signatures to documents

With SignHouse, you can easily create an online signature that you can reuse over and over again on different online documents.

You can create one with SignHouse, or upload one you already have. Then, all you have to do is drag and drop your custom e-signature onto any document to sign.

Feature #3: Add signature to Google Docs

SignHouse is fully integrated with Google Docs, allowing you to sign documents from anywhere – including on mobile. Whether you’re at the office, at home, or on the go, you and your team can get documents signed quickly and securely. 

Pricing

SignHouse is completely free for small users. If you want to use SignHouse for your freelance or small business and only need 3 signatures per month, you will never need to pay to use SignHouse. 

If you have a team or need more than 3 signatures per month, SignHouse has a reasonably priced monthly plan of $49.

This includes unlimited team members and unlimited signatures per month. While this may seem expensive compared to DocuSign’s or HelloSign’s advertised cost of $25/month, bear in mind that their cost is per user.

If you have more than 2 authorized signatories on your team, SignHouse becomes the much cheaper option, while providing the same quality. 

SignHouse Pros & Cons

Pros:

• Intuitive way to create signatures and send documents for signing
• Large free template library for all users
• Analytics to track users and signatures
• Supports Multiple Formats: PDF, DOC, DOCX, JPG, etc.

Cons: 

• Less variation in priced plans
• Relatively new platform

Table: DocuSign vs SignHouse

Table: HelloSign vs SignHouse

DocuSign, HelloSign, and SignHouse provide very similar services and features in the eSignature industry, but they provide it in different ways.

DocuSign is marketed more to enterprise-level businesses, while HelloSign and SignHouse cater more to small teams.

SignHouse stands out because of its large library of free resources and templates, intuitive interface, and its simple payment plans.

If you are looking for an easier, less expensive way for you and your team to collect the signatures you need, SignHouse is the way to go.

Thank you for reading our DocuSign vs HelloSign vs SignHouse review!